10/5/08

Tiago Genoveze


By Chelsea Rice
BROOKLINE-- At age 21 years, Tiago Lucio Miguel Genoveze has already had as many homes as names.

“Let me start from the beginning,” Genoveze says, rubbing his hand over his stubbled chin. “One day I’m from Brazil, the next day I say I’m from Grand Cayman just to make things less complicated.” Genoveze thinks of all of his homes as a collection of adventures.

“I’ve loved it,” Genoveze says.

The tall, lean Brazilian was born in Queens, N.Y.. Over the years, he has lived in Sheathed, England; São Paulo, Brazil; and Grand Cayman. He attended high school at St. Andrew’s Boarding School in Boca Raton, F.L., before flying north for the winter, and following his older brother to Boston University.

Genoveze, an English major with minors in Italian and photojournalism, hopes to enhance his travels and life experiences with his education.

“I guess that is something selfish about me,” Genoveze says. “I want to fill my life with as many experiences as possible.”

He hopes to help people around the world with photography, capturing their experiences on film.

Because of “some bad [academic] advisors,” Genoveze feels confined as he whirls through a stressful senior year, balancing five classes, working in a photolab, and a directed study.

“I’ve basically given up having a social life,” Genoveze says.

Genoveze’s traveling spirit never settled. He spent the fall of 2007 studying abroad in Padova, Italy, where he met his girlfriend Mariana Foley, also a senior at BU, who says they “met by chance.”

More than anywhere else, Italy felt the most like home to Genoveze, who hopes to live there with his girlfriend after graduation. Foley said she plans to attend design school while Genoveze “explores new ideas and people, taking pictures of everything.”

“That is why I think Tiago loves journalism,” Foley says. “He loves to travel, meet new people and experience new things as he understands new places.”

“Living in so many different places has in a way made me a colder person, because I don’t miss people,” Genoveze says. “I’m terrible at staying in touch, responding to emails and calling,” he says. In contrast, always leaving friends has kept his family extremely close.

“It was hard to make any deep connections in terms of friends, so it made our family even stronger,” Genoveze’s older brother Felipe says. “It makes sense. We always had each other.”

For the last couple of years, Felipe Genoveze has enjoyed living in the same city as his younger brother, who he describes as “creative and mature for his age.” “I’m definitely going to miss him, but I get it,” he says about his younger brother’s plans to move to Italy. “He’s meant for great things.”